William Unek

William Unek (died 20 February 1957) was a Ugandan serial mass murderer who killed a total of 58 people in two separate spree killings in the Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo) and Tanganyika Territory (modern-day Tanzania) during the mid-1950s.

While living in the Congo, William murdered 22 of his relatives in a mass stabbing in Mahagi territory during a family reunion, apparently believing they were responsible for sabotaging his marriage using witchcraft. Though wanted as a fugitive by Belgian authorities, he had managed to flee the country for Tanganyika, where he took a new identity and became a police constable under the British administration.

After around two years, William, suspecting his new spouse was having an affair with his boss, targeted numerous places in and around his new home in Malampaka village in a mass shooting and axe attack, killing 36 people. Following a nine-day manhunt, William was fatally wounded during his capture. His true identity and connection to the earlier murders in the Congo were discovered a month later.

Background According to the East African Standard, William Unek's name is composed of a given name (William) and his father's name (Unek) as a patronymic. As such, he was typically referred to only by his first name, including in formal settings, i.e. "Constable William" rather than "Constable Unek". with the East African Standard identifying him as an ethnic Acholi, which was repeated in later publishings by The Times.

A joint investigation between Congolese and Ugandan authorities determined that William Unek was an alias and while he was of Ugandan origin, "William" was born Adrogo Urwinyo, an Alur of the Jahoulur chiefdom in Okoro County, West Nile District. The Alur kingdom, which is located in an area spanning the northeastern Congo and northwestern Uganda, had an arrangement with colonial authorities that allowed the Alur a degree of autonomy, including self-regulated border crossings through individual chiefdoms.

Mahagi killings On a Saturday night Adrogo had invited 22 family members to a banquet on the occasion of an indigenous festival, The killings notably caused shock with both the native and the colonial population. At the time, the vast majority of African law enforcement members in Tanganyika were Luo, whose languages, including those of the Alur and Acholi, are largely mutually intelligible. By 1956, William had joined the Tanganyika Police Force, who were unaware of his criminal past. He was serving as an askari and held the lowest rank as constable. residing and working in , a village in the province's Maswa District (in a part of the modern-day Simiyu Region). Malampaka is part of Sukumaland (commonly misrepresented as his wife in international media), William committed a second spree killing. Just after midnight, William came into work at the Malampaka police post, located outside of the main residential area. He asked two superior officers, Sergeant Clement and Corporal Opiyo, to accompany him into town, asking them to help in the arrest of "a man with several diamonds". The officers walked outside in single file fashion with Clement at the front and William in the back. During the trek into town, William struck Opiyo in the back of the head, causing the latter to lose consciousness for about 15 minutes. Upon awakening, Opiyo found Clement and William gone. Opiyo headed back towards the post to get other askaris to aid in search of the sergeant. The death toll rose to 16 the following day, with unconfirmed reports of 32 injured. marking the 32nd fatality per official announcement on 13 February. Between 14 and 16 February, William attacked several isolated homes surrounding Malampaka. Police determined that William ambushed the occupants and would steal their clothes and food before setting the huts and outbuildings on fire and fleeing again. In these attacks, four people were killed by gunshots or slashes, bringing the final fatality count to 36.

Victims 31 people were killed in Malampaka, with eleven of the victims killed in close vicinity of the police post. The coroner's statement initially reported the number of people killed by William to 37, and that William stole the key to the armoury from her.

Manhunt For nine days, the bush and swamp area in the districts of Maswa, Kishapu, and Kwimba, covering several hundred square miles, and 200 officers of Tanganyika police. A single spotter plane cooperated with Mwanza Police on the second day of the search. British authorities posted a reward of £125 ) for William's capture and deployed additional jeeps and aircraft to aid in the search. Pastoralists and farmers in the area refrained from working outside during this time due to fears of attack from the fugitive. who lived only outside of Malampaka, in search of food. Iyumbu reported the incident to the police; he was asked to notify them and keep William with him should the fugitive come again to his home. William, still armed, reappeared at about 1:00 a.m. the next day. Iyumbu sent out his wife, telling William she was getting a chicken to eat, Iyumbu distracted William until police arrival by engaging him in conversation for nearly two hours.

During questioning, William told Supt. Asst. Fraser how he was motivated by his concubine's apparent infidelity, also asking to be shot while gesturing at his ear. with the coroner, J. A. L. Wiseham, deciding in mid-March 1957 that William's death was a justifiable homicide; Wiseham declined to examine the other deaths because "no benefit would accrue". with plans to buy new cattle. Superintendent Press was also praised for acting "in utter disregard for his own life" by planting the explosive that flushed out William Unek. In 1958, a maternity clinic was built in the district, paid for with public donations, as a memorial for William's victims.

International The spree killing in Malampaka ranks amongst the deadliest of the twentieth century. After William Unek was connected to the Mahagi killings, several English-language newspapers presented William Unek as the world's most prolific murderer for having killed 57 people, the number of victims reported by Reuters. It was considered the deadliest mass shooting in recorded history until the 1982 Woo Bum-kon incident.

Since the 2010s, William Unek has occasionally been mentioned in the context of mass shootings in the United States as an example that such acts of violence are neither a modern trend or unique to the US.

Following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in the United States, the Hartford Courant noted that gunman Adam Lanza, who had a preoccupation with mass killings and their perpetrators, listed William Unek and Woo Bum-kon as the most prolific murderers out of a 400-person ranking he kept in his personal documents.